Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of machinery, devices, apparatuses and arrays used in agro-industry, greenhouses, and more particularly of a mobile tool-bearing head including a tool for several works, in agricultural operation machines, such as at least one nozzle for application of variable doses of phytosanitary products and/or at least one sensor for scanning of crop information.
Even when the present description refers to a mobile tool-bearing head that uses a tool such as nozzles for the application of phytosanitary products, it should be clear that this does not imply that the invention is limited to such a use, instead, the head may use another tools such as different types of sensors for information scanning, either independently or jointly with the nozzle with no inconveniences.
Description of Prior Art
Generally, the main types of self-propelled irrigation machines that may operate with a pulverization system are: central pivot, linear displacement machineries and machines to irrigate corners that are coupled to central pivots, deploying and folding as the central pivot moves away from the tangent and gets near it, which are referred to in the art as “Corner”.
One of said machines may be the one disclosed in Patent Document U.S. Pat. No. 3,326,232 which teaches an irrigation apparatus for application of agrochemicals with irrigation water, wherein water is used for the transport of chemical products such that the water source is in contact with chemical products when the mixture is applied on the field. However, by the use of said machine irrigation may be run from a water source contamination. Also, not all agrochemicals can be used because they are excessively diluted in water, and also, chemical products may be applied only when the apparatus is functioning in the conventional irrigation mode.
Another machine may be the one disclosed in Patent Document U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,164 issued to McCann, et al., which discloses an apparatus and a method for dividing the field to be irrigated by an irrigation system into a plurality of zones that may be controlled for irrigation water and the chemical requirements and then, through the irrigation system, delivering the appropriate amount of irrigation water or chemical products to each zone as defined above. The apparatus includes a plurality of sprayers independently controlled by valves sensitive to control modules, which are electronically interconnected with data acquisition and control unit to activate or deactivate the sprayers. Field maps are generated by a programmed microprocessor that determines the current position of each independent sprayer, then the microprocessor sends the information recorded in the control system which in turn sends these signals to various data acquisition and control modules. However, this system, as well as the US Document above, also shows the drawback of a possible contamination of water source, since some chemical products cannot be used due to their unsuitably high dilution volumes in water.
Still another machine may be the one disclosed in Patent Document U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,771 issued to Chapman John A., which discloses a chemical product distribution system for use with a mobile irrigation system made of a vertical adjustable, liquid chemical product supply line, seated on the irrigation system and which is in operating communication with the chemical liquid pressurized source. A liquid chemical product distribution line is place under the chemical product supply line, being these connected thereto with a remotely controlled valve. While the problem associated with the use of water for application of chemical products has been enhanced by this system, other drawbacks are still there, such as the need to regulate all sprayers in a particular manner, high minimum application doses, a very high number of sprayers lacking a suitable cleaning circuit, and the need to perform the manual adjustment when doses should be modified. Also, this system does not function with corner machines and the sprayer may only be used on this machine.
Still another machine can be the one disclosed in Patent Document U.S. Pat. No. 6,666,384, by the same holder of this application, which teaches an apparatus and method for the application of phytosanitary liquids on a field, wherein the apparatus comprises a plurality of irrigation units including nozzles for the application of an adjustable amount of liquid on the field, driving devices to move the irrigation unit on the ground, a system for supplying the liquid to the nozzles and a control circuit to control the functioning of nozzles in order to apply variable doses to the irrigation unit nozzles, the control circuit comprising a computer unit for the receipt of introduced data and to operate the control circuit, and being a control module independently on each irrigation unit, a plurality of sensors for detecting various parameters of the unit and an interface module connecting the independent control modules and the computer unit therebetween. Even though the machine of Document U.S. Pat. No. 6,666,384 has shown to function correctly in practice, the use of a huge amount of nozzles generates a series of inconveniences during functioning. One of them has been observed when at least one of nozzles fails or is defective. That is, by having a big amount of nozzles, the determination of which is failing and the processing times to perform said detection are difficult, they are usually long and involve significant delays and additional costs.
As for the methods known for the application of agrochemical products, we find the use of self-impelled machines or sprayers. At least one person is needed to operate the machinery exposing it to products that are toxic and harmful to human beings. These machines in turn generate an undesirable compaction on soil and damage crops as they run the field with their wheels. They are also unable to perform the control on all culture stages since they are developed at height and in repeated opportunities these machines do not have enough space to run on them.
The use of irrigation equipment injecting agrochemicals with the water used for irrigation is also a sometimes method which is no inaccurate and harmful for environment since the flow of water and chemical products is distributed on ground through the irrigation machine sprayers. When it is use for fertilizers, this method does not show any problem since, even though the distribution of the fertilizer on the surface is not accurate, the application may be deemed acceptable. However, for the use of variable dose requiring a precise control in all nozzles on small areas, the method is not acceptable. In turn, the dissolution of the water rate needed in this method is unacceptable for most of agrochemicals such as herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, etc.
Therefore, it would be convenient to have a new system for the application of phytosanitary products and/or which allows for the survey of information on crops for mechanized irrigation machines, among others, without the above mentioned inconveniences and limitations and which is in agreement with the modern technique.